Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson - Softcover

"Unforgivable Blackness is likely to be the definitive biography of Jack Johnson . . . A significant achievement. Geoffrey Ward provides an utterly convincing and frequently heartrending portrait of Jack Johnson." --Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Review of Books

"A formidable accomplishment . . . Ward has successfully brought this deep and colorful personality, this insufficiently understood and altogether amazing man, back to life." --David Margolick, The New York Times Book Review

"Brings [Johnson] to life in all his vulgar, splendid glory. Engrossing and definitive, Unforgivable Blackness is a great biography of a great and utterly fascinating subject." --Allen Barra, The Philadelphia Inquirer

"An engaging and well-researched popular biography . . . Throughout the book, Johnson's energy never flags, and neither does our interest. [Ward] has drawn a portrait of a fascinating figure, whose oversized personality fills every page." --Bruce Schoenfeld, Washington Post Book World

"This remarkable book is at one and the same time a rousing story, a terrific biography, and first-rate history. With immense skill, Geoffrey Ward has not only brought Jack Johnson back to life but has provided a telling window onto what it was like to be a great black athlete in early-twentieth-century America." --Doris Kearns Goodwin

"Geoffrey Ward's Unforgivable Blackness is a stunning exploration in the unbelievable bigotry of whites in early-twentieth-century America." --David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the two-volume biography of W. E. B. Du Bois

The National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of A First-Class Temperament presents a full-scale portrait that draws on a wealth of period sources, including Johnson's never-before-published prison memoir, of heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson, from his rise to success to his prison sentence and life in exile. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.